Resources for transfeminine grooming
Fair warning - I'm totally unqualified to discuss this topic.
For a lot of these guides, I either have personal experience (ie, I'm old), or I've done a bunch of research (ie, I'm bored), or the cis women in my life have assisted me (ie, I'm popular, I guess?).
On this topic, I'm fumbling in the dark. Sorry about that!
That said, I have learned a few things, so maybe there's something in here that is useful. Hopefully as my knowledge grows, so will this page.
Hair
I always cut my hair real short as a guy. I'm just now growing it out for the first time. The few things I've learned so far are:
Brushing
There are different types of brushes! A "quill" brush is pretty handy for getting hair in the direction you want it to go in. A "boar hair" brush distributes hair product and/or your natural oils along the strands. As far as I can tell, these are just descriptive names - no actual animal bits are involved.
There are more, but that's as far as I've gotten to date. I use both - the quill brush to get my hair styled the way I want, and then the boar brush to make it nice and shiny.
I have been told that you can't brush curly hair or it stops curling. Since mine is wavy, that's not a big problem for me. But still, something to keep in mind.
Trans-friendly Stylist Finder!
I need to find a trans-friendly stylist. Thankfully there's a website to help me!. Stylists can register to indicate they are trans-positive. The geographic areas covered are limited as of this writing, however.
Nails
Buffing is pretty rad. By using a buffing block or buffing file, you can get your nails very smooth and shiny, without giving them any color or making them super noticeable. This is a great way to play with your nails while still staying off the radar.
Crystal nail files (which if I understand correctly, are typically glass) are pretty fantastic. As my nails grow out and I want to keep them at a given length, clipping becomes less useful than filing. I have some metal files, as well as some emery board style files. I opted to try one of these, and it's great! So much better than what I was using before. Look for it to be "etched" - this will keep you away from files that have grit glued to them (a la sandpaper).